NNSA Blog

NNSA field office managers from across the enterprise gathered in Kansas City last week for a federal field leadership team meeting. During the trip, they toured the new Kansas City Plant, which is more than 80 percent complete. Beginning in January 2013, KCP will begin the move from the Bannister Federal Complex to the new National Security Campus.

Representatives from NNSA's Sandia Site Office recently hosted the NNSA summer interns from the Albuquerque Complex and the Sandia Site Office on a tour of Sandia National Laboratories. The interns toured Sandia's Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Applications (MESA) facility and the Annular Core Research Reactor.

The NNSA Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship (SSGF) annual fellows’ conference this week brought together its fellows, alumni, academic advisors and DOE laboratory and headquarters staff. Participants gathered to learn about current research in the areas of high energy density physics, nuclear science and materials under extreme conditions and hydrodynamics.

Now in its seventh year, five new fellows were recently welcomed into the program and participated in the annual conference. Each fellow is afforded the unique opportunity to complete a three-month practicum at one of the DOE's national defense laboratories. During the practicum experience, fellows are able to use some of the nation's largest and most sophisticated experimental and computational facilities to conduct their research.

Funded by NNSA and founded in 2006, the SSGF program is administered by the Krell Institute. The SSGF recognizes an ever-increasing demand for highly trained scientists in fields within science and engineering that are critical to stewardship science.

Five individuals from NNSA’s national laboratories have been named recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Among the 96 recipients announced by President Obama are: Jeffrey W. Banks and Heather Whitley, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Amy J. Clarke, Los Alamos National Laboratory; and Stanley Atcitty and Daniel B. Sinars, Sandia National Laboratories.

The Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers embody the high priority the Obama Administration places on producing outstanding scientists and engineers to advance the Nation’s goals, tackle grand challenges and contribute to the American economy.

Savannah River Site (SRS) Tritium Programs recently completed a project to design, build and relocate a new system for separating and capturing helium-3. This form of helium gas is primarily used in radiation detectors employed by the United States Department of Homeland Security to detect neutron activity from nuclear material.

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC, the management and operations contractor at SRS, is responsible for the recovery and management of helium-3 as one of its key missions for NNSA. The recovery system upgrade project paves the way for a larger initiative to maintain and modernize Tritium operations while reducing operational footprint and costs.

The Tritium Responsive Infrastructure Modifications initiative will leverage technology advancements, so that the large, aging and more expensive processes will move from Cold War-era facilities into newer, smaller and less expensive accommodations, thereby reducing operating expenses by $28 million annually.

Construction crews prepare to pour concrete at the new High Explosives Pressing Facility (HEPF) project at Pantex this month. Workers have performed several major concrete pours on the site and are beginning to erect the walls of the 45,000-square-foot facility.

The HEPF project, which is being managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is on budget and on schedule for completion in 2014. The project will combine the operations of half a dozen aging buildings into one state-of-the-art facility, greatly reducing the movement of high explosives at Pantex. Reduced movement benefits safety and also aids in production, as high explosives moves can restrict other plant operations.

NNSA Administrator Thomas D’Agostino yesterday awarded the first ever NNSA Science and Technology Excellence Award to Dr. Michel McCoy from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for his groundbreaking computer science research and leadership with the Advanced Simulation and Computing program.

The newly-established NNSA Science and Technology Excellence Award is the highest level of recognition for science and technology achievement in NNSA. It recognizes accomplishment that can include vision, leadership, innovation and intellectual contributions. The award is intended to draw attention to the remarkable scientific and technological successes that are achieved by the researchers that support the NNSA mission, and will be awarded at the sole discretion of the administrator.

"Dr. McCoy’s groundbreaking work in the field of computer science and his commitment to the Advanced Simulation and Computing program is unmatched,” said D’Agostino. “The award presented to Dr. McCoy represents our deep commitment to the science and technology that serves the breadth of our national security missions. His leadership, ingenuity and dedication not only helped NNSA’s Sequoia supercomputer become the fastest supercomputer in the world, but also led to discoveries that will define our work for decades to come. We are fortunate to have dedicated professionals like Dr. McCoy who are truly leaders in their fields, and I am proud to have him part of our enterprise.”

Y-12 recently honored six small businesses for their exceptional contributions to Y-12’s missions during Fiscal Year 2011. In addition, two Y-12 employees also were acknowledged for their role as small-business advocates.

During the annual Socioeconomic Programs Awards reception, Y-12 highlighted the valuable role small businesses and entrepreneurs play in Y-12’s transformation from the nation’s 20th century Cold War nuclear weapons complex into a 21st century nuclear security enterprise.

Darrel Kohlhorst, president and general manager of B&W Y-12, at right, and Gary Johnson, president of CG Services Corporation, sign a Mentor-Protégé agreement as his wife and CG Services Corporation Vice President Cindy Johnson looks on at the annual Socioeconomic Programs Awards ceremony held at Y-12’s New Hope Center on July 12. CG Services’ capabilities include environmental restoration, waste management, waste transportation and pollution prevention.

Senior leaders from various agencies are meeting in Kansas City, Mo., this week to take part in Amber Waves 2012, a radiological dispersal device (RDD) exercise series sponsored by DOE and NNSA. Leaders from various counties and federal agencies representing Missouri, Kansas and Iowa are taking part in the incident management table-top exercise. The goal of the exercise is to foster interagency collaboration among federal, state and local organizations. The Federal Radiological Management and Assessment Center, coordinated by DOE/NNSA, is a major player in the exercise.

About the photo:

Dave Bowman, NNSA's director or Office of Emergency Response, (fourth from left) takes part in a session of the Amber Waves 2012 emergency exercise.

In 2007, the Office of Nonproliferation and International Security (NIS) launched the Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI) to develop the policies, concepts, technologies, expertise, and infrastructure necessary to sustain the international safeguards system as its mission evolves over the next 25 years. One of the major goals of this initiative is to develop the next generation of safeguards professionals who have the qualifications and experience necessary to tackle the emerging challenges facing the nuclear safeguards regime. To meet this goal, the NGSI Human Capital Development subprogram recruits, educates, and trains students from U.S. universities for safeguards positions at the national laboratories, encourages U.S. experts to seek employment at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and supports young and mid-career professionals new to the safeguards field. To date, the program has sponsored more than 350 undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students in internship and research positions, and provided further safeguards education across the DOE/NNSA National Laboratory complex.

A key focus for the NGSI program is to ensure that incoming staff have the technical and policy expertise necessary to contribute effectively to the international safeguards system. One former intern, Amanda Rynes, spent a summer at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) developing a metric to assess proliferation risk using political, economic, and social factors in addition to technical capability. Through NGSI, she was able to participate in intensive training sessions, tour nuclear facilities, and gain hands-on experience with many of the tools and devices used in safeguards implementation today. She commented that “the NGSI internship program gave me a solid understanding of basic safeguards issues and technologies that I wouldn’t have been able to get anywhere else.” Amanda, who was hired by INL following her internship, is currently on detail to the State Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy, Safety, and Security. She will begin graduate studies at the University of Chicago’s Committee on International Relations in the fall.

NGSI’s unique challenges require the cultivation of professionals from a variety of backgrounds. Evan Wyse, a former intern at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), used his background in economics to research alternative funding strategies available to the IAEA. He will present his findings on possible funding models to supplement the IAEA’s budget at the 2012 Institute for Nuclear Materials Management Annual Meeting. Evan’s background in Arabic has also allowed him to participate in NIS’s international engagement efforts, particularly in the Middle East. After earning his Bachelor’s degree in International Studies and Economics from the University of Washington, he was hired full-time at PNNL, where he conducts economic analyses in a nonproliferation context and continues to support NIS’s international engagement work.